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Armor penetration
Armor penetration (sometimes abbreviated ArP or called armor pen) is a number typically appearing on items that indicates the amount of armor ignored by an attack. It is a modifier that directly decreases the value of the armor of your target in combat time. Unlike Sunder Armor and Expose Armor which require active application, ArP items are passive. Some abilities, enchantments, items, and spells can contribute by adding armor penetration. ArP can be found as both abilities (ex. sunder armor), or as passive statistical upgrades found on equipment pieces (ex. Season 3 PvP armor). Armor penetration reduces the amount of armor that your target has against melee attacks. ArP is unique in that the more ArP you have, the greater the increase in damage becomes. Armor penetration is sometimes confused with "spell penetration," although they are calculated and function differently. Armor penetration is not a very recent stat. It has been seen in Serrated Blades since Patch 1.10. Since itemization introduction of arena set 3, Blizzard has been popularizing the use of this modifier even into . Armor penetration rating Starting in patch 3.0, in preparation for the expansion , all items with Armor Penetration have been modified to a rating system that affects a percentage of armor ignored. This means that gear scales more cleanly with all bosses but has a side effect of becoming less useful on low armor ones. The conversion rate is about 7 ArP = 1 ArP Rating. So if you had 1000 ArP, you now have 142.8 ArP Rating. In the past, this would have been a 6% gain on a 15k armor foe and a 12.5% gain on an 8k armor foe; at level 80 it now gives a 9.2% gain to both targets. Armor Penetration Rating against WOTLK Raid Bosses The following tables provide detailed numbers for the effects of differeng levels of Armor Penetration Rating (ArP) in the case where a level 80 physical damage class attacks a level 83 raid boss with a given level of armor. ArP experiences diminishing returns for target armor levels greater than 8317. Percentage based ArP Since some talents operate on percentages such as Mace Specialization and Piercing Shots they operate onto the already existing modifiers. Instead of ignoring armor from the base value of the target immediatley, it takes in account the effects of Sunder Armor, Expose Armor, Faerie Fire and then does a post operation of the value when it calculates mace specialization and piercing shots. In addition, what this entails for percentage based ArP is that the higher the armor the greater the ArP raw value and the lesser the armor the less ArP raw value. That is to say, percentage based ArP suffers diminishing returns for heavily sundered units in terms of raw ArP value especially for those with very low armor value. Armor penetration benefits Armor penetration will increase the normal damage (white) and the critical damage (yellow) by a percentage significantly for virtually every armored target. But for lightly armored targets it is much greater than having no armor ignore at all. From a perspective of a warrior, because armor penetration increases damage, a warrior will get a substantial gain in rage generation as a result. Also, armor penetration causes the warrior to increase Execute damage. Opportunistically from a PvP point of view, a warrior or rogue may apply fewer stacks of sunders or expose armor, assuming they have very high armor pen than usual, because they have a head start on armor ignored. Or they may choose to boost the sustained damage further by a percentage significantly by applying more stacks or combo points. Skills and talents * Rogue: Mace Specialization and Serrated Blades. Expose Armor also effectively counts as armor penetration. * Warrior: Mace Specialization. Sunder Armor also effectively counts as armor penetration. * Hunter: Piercing Shots, Acid Spit (Worm pet), Sting (Wasp pet). * Druid: Faerie Fire. * Expose armor, sunder armor, and acid spit effects do not stack. * Faerie fire and sting effects do not stack. Itemization Warrior sets: * * * Rogue sets: * * Hunter sets: * * * Weapons: * Trinkets: * * * * Enchants: * note: 2x Executioner do not stack. Gems: * * * Countering armor penetration To effectively neutralize or counter the effectiveness of armor penetration one could simply increase their armor value in combat time with drinking potions such as , changing to Bear Form or Moonkin Form, equipping a Shield, dropping a Stoneskin Totem, casting Inner Fire or Devotion Aura, or speccing in Toughness and Thick Hide, or proccing Ancestral Healing or Inspiration intentionally. You can also enchant your gear with armor for example to counter armor pen. In short, armor penetration is really only countered by more armor. Patch changes * Patch 3.1.2 capped to 100% (or 1232 armor penetration rating) * Patch 3.1 increased the amount of armor penetration provided by armor penetration rating by 25%. * As of Patch 2.4.1, Armor Penetration will now display on the character sheet (Armor Penetration displays in the hit rating section). See also * Formulas:Armor penetration * Formulas:Damage reduction Category:Combat Category:Formulas and game mechanics Category:Game terms